THIS SUMMER'S CAMPAIGN

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 84, 30 November 1931, Page 4

THIS SUMMER'S CAMPAIGN

Rotorua is tired of the depression and has decided to take definite steps, not only to drive it from her own portals, but also to do what she can to lielp in banishing it from the Dominion. In ordinary circumstances, for a country town of some 6000 inhabitants to claim seriously for itself the possibility of exerting a national influence in such a matter would be to exhibit a humorous lack of a sense of proportion. In Rotorua's case, however, the circumstances are not ordinary. Rotorua is pre-eminently the Dominion's summer playground and during the Christmas and New Year holidays, when her great effort is to reach its climax, thousands of New Zealanders from all over the Dominion gather within her gates in search of respite from the cares of the work-a-day world. There is, therefore, sound psychology behind the decision this year to make the annual Christmas and New Year Carnival an event of special significance. For some years past the Carnival has been steadily gaining fame. Nowhere else in New Zealand is there anything quite like it. Nowhere elfee are the natural surroundings and the conditions in general so favourable. It is therefore no exaggeration to claim that the carnival proposed for this year, well organised, as it will be, on a major scale, will have .some influence in helping toi engender a more cheerful outlook in the coming year. The lasting effects of a few days of complete abandonment to the spirit of carnival, of complete and care free happiness, need no emphasising. That Rotorua is capable of creating the atmosphere which compels surrender to King Carnival by all but the most misanthropic she has already proved time and again. Her title to claim that what she will attempt in this direction she will sncceed magnificently in doing is. not to be disputed. It is therefore reasonable to anticipate that an unusually large number of New Zealanders will come here to participate in the week's revels which have been planned. If the past is any criterion of the future few of - those who do come, but will take away with them a new cheerfulness and so a new courage. Thus will Rotorua have made good her claim to a leading part in the new war, whose weapons are cheerfulness and courage and whose objective is the conquest of the forces of General de Pression.